Hard Electric is Michael Blouin's third book of poetry, a road-tripping, bridge-burning collection of the author's hard-won and soft-edged reflections that seem to stutter-step towards resolution while tumbling down a decided slant towards disaster."Where Does My Heart Beat Now" was Celine Dion's first North American hit and in it she asks: Where do all the lonely hearts go?'

In Hard Electric Blouin presents a bleakly unsettling but ultimately life-affirming treatise that hints at his fascination with the same question and perhaps shuffles into the neighbourhood of an answer. That neighbourhood is peopled with the late-night bars of Key West's Duval Street, the sharp spice of BBQ joints, sunburned beach motels and Christmas lights frozen to February trees. And Susan Sarandon's cousin.

All in a work that legendary poet bill bissett has called:"One of the most moving books I've ever read, with some of the wisest lines ever written."

It's a book not for the faint of heart, but for the lonely hearted, and for those who know them well.

Michael Blouin is a ReLit Award winning author for Best Novel in Canada, has been shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award, the bpNichol Award and the CBC Literary Award and is a winner of the Diana Brebner Award and the 2012 Lampman Award. He has been published in most Canadian literary magazines including Arc, Descant, Branch, Dragnet, The Antigonish Review, Event, Queens Quarterly and Fiddlehead, and has served as an adjudicator for The Ontario Arts Council, the Ottawa Book Awards, Carleton University, and This Magazine.

Michael Blouin's profile page